A Thrilling Fantastic Photo-Play

Starring: Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Rulolf Lettinger

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - great

"Ladies and gentlemen, Cesare the somnambulist will answer all your questions. Cesare knows every secret. Cesare knows the past and sees the future. Judge for yourselves. Don't hold back, ask away!" - Dr. Caligari

Why watch this? This early film shocked and created the horror genre.

Plot Summary: In a shadowy German town, a man named Francis recounts a bizarre tale of murder and madness centered around a mysterious, possibly clairvoyant carnival performer, Dr. Caligari, and his somnambulist assistant, Cesare. Francis begins to suspect the carnival doctor is behind a series of local killings, driven by a fear that leads him to investigate the unsettling truth behind the performers' identities and motives.

Dad's Preview: This cinematic masterpiece of horror is an incredible feat of angles, shadows and revolutionary close-up shots. The film's askew sets remind me of Picasso's expressionist funhouse. That design is purposeful, to keep the audience feeling out of place... separate from the normal ordered world. The story centers on a strange "Doctor" who uses hypnosis to control a somnambulist (a person who is always asleep), named Cesare, for his sideshow attraction. Of course, there are more nefarious aspects to the dark plot, and even a few twists that make this silent film very interesting, especially the ending. Dr. Caligari may be cinema's first mad scientist, leading the way for Frankenstein, Moreau, and Jekyll.  

Decla-Film